59. The Third Ending Is Unlocked / 60. Sirin: "You Call This a Fair Fight?"

Then, she suddenly appeared in front of Kal'tsit and, taking advantage of her momentary lapse in reaction time, slashed down heavily with her sword.

"Speaking of which, am I paying homage to Professor Great Ther...? Uh, wait, something seems off?"

Kal'tsit, who had taken a full-force blow from Xia Ling, did not create distance or become more aggressive as she had expected. Instead, she suddenly protected her not-so-ample chest with one hand and began to close her eyes and gather her strength.

"Hmm? There are still skills to use?" Xia Ling stopped her attack with some curiosity. Taking advantage of the low difficulty, she wanted to check out Kal'tsit's skills, which seemed pretty good. She could try to teach her own Kal'tsit a trick later.

After a few seconds of charging, the yellow and green Originium light in front of Kal'tsit grew brighter and brighter. Then, a powerful shock was released from both Kal'tsit and mon2tr.

Kiana spared because she kept a sufficient distance from mon2tr, but Xia Ling was not so lucky and took the shockwave head-on.

"Holy crap, Kal'tsit has a wide-area stun effect... wait, it seems like Mon3Tr does have a wide-area stun effect..."

As the smoke cleared, Xia Ling rubbed her slightly dizzy head and stood up. Then, she noticed a blurry dark figure in front of her.

mon2tr let out a sharp screech and swung its claws fiercely at Xia Ling's body.

Xia Ling: Σ(っ°Д °;)っ

Kiana: Oo

Kal'tsit: ( ￣▽￣)

"What? The Jail Cat can switch places with mon2tr?"

Xia Ling was so frightened that she scrambled around, dodging mon2tr's four wide-open claws.

On the other hand, Kiana was much more relaxed. Compared to the 6-star Guard Mon2Tr, Kal'tsit's oppressive aura was much less.

Especially when she got closer, Kiana realized that Kal'tsit also had an adorable white cat head, and Kiana immediately had an urge to touch the tuft of fur on the tip of her ear.

"No, no, why would I have such a strange thought? This is Sister Xia Ling's elder; I should show her some respect..."

Putting aside her strange thoughts, Kiana took advantage of the reduced pressure from the boss and quickly began clearing out the surrounding monsters.

Chapter 59 successfully unlocks the Third Ending.

Once the pressure on Kiana lessened, the battle quickly ended.

Although mon2tr was quite strong, his actual combat power at level 6 was only around that of A-rank Valkyrie. Therefore, after Xia Ling stabilized the situation, he was quickly defeated by Xia Ling.

As Xia Ling made her move, Kal'tsit on the other side naturally couldn't escape the scene of motherly love and filial piety, leaving Kiana stunned.

"Uh... you just... did it?"

"Yes." Xia Ling's scythe blade moved swiftly and decisively. "I was beaten down by her every day during training, and I finally managed to win this time. How could I hold back?"

Xia Ling wasn't lying. In a sparring match, only Highmore in her Collapsed Form could hold her own against Kal'tsit in terms of direct combat strength.

As for Xia Ling... if she wants to stall, almost no one can catch her, but conversely, she can't kill anyone either.

Kal'tsit easily collected the loot; besides the usual Recruitment Voucher, Originium Ingot, and Thoughts, the collection on this floor was also a very useful item.

[Medicube: All friendly units gain two layers of shield upon deployment.]

If you only look at the effects of the Medicube, it may not seem that miraculous. However, Xia Ling had already discovered a problem during the previous trials.

Each time I briefly hide in the Imaginary Space using a skill, it is counted as a redeployment.

In other words, both she and Kiana can use this to generate shields.

This mechanism seems to be the same as 52 Biscuits, so it can be considered as benefiting from the update.

However, it's not without its drawbacks. While the shield from the Medicube in the game is an invincible shield, the shield in the trial cannot do the same.

However, something is better than nothing. After putting away her spoils, Xia Ling went to the Fourth Floor.

The system, which had failed to pull off any tricks at the previous boss node, immediately showcased its traditional skills to Xia Ling.

"..."

Looking at the Unexpected Encounter with the green and purple hues that was the first thing she saw on the route, Xia Ling fell silent.

"System, you..."

These nodes marked in purple are the ones related to Sirin's content!

The system answered quickly.

[Host, to make it easier for you to find nodes related to Sirin, I've specially marked all of these nodes. How thoughtful is that?]

"If you hadn't sounded so guilty, I might have believed your lies."

Xia Ling looked speechless. "Isn't this just like always, finding the problem, figuring out the cause, but being unable to solve it?"

[Ahem, host, you should be understanding... After all, cases like Kiana's are truly rare. The fact that the system didn't crash due to various bugs is already a testament to its strength.]

[However, this will only happen once. Trust me, host, the pigeon will be fully back to normal by tomorrow.]

You'd better be...

Xia Ling sighed and said, "Kiana, let's go."

"There are two nodes related to Sirin on this floor. Now we don't even need to look for them. Let's just go."

[Unexpected Encounter]

[You visited the Babylon Laboratory again, arriving at Sirin's dormitory with practiced ease, but found no one there.]

After searching the dormitory, you finally found a diary.

[According to the diary entries, about a week ago, researchers started having the children write in their diaries, seemingly intending to collect information on certain psychological factors affecting them. You turned to the last page of the diary, which recorded why Sirin was not present at the moment.]

Xia Ling picked up the diary from under her pillow; it contained Sirin's sloppy handwriting.

"Galina died yesterday."

"It's just me, Bella, and Aurora left."

"Today, Aurora and I have to participate in another experiment. Aurora hasn't been feeling well since yesterday..."

"Will she survive? Or will I be the one to die this time?"

"I really want to leave here, I really want to go home..."

The last diary entry was written in a very rushed manner, as if time was of the essence.

[After reading the diary, you felt a mix of emotions, and you decided to leave something behind for Sirin.]

Leave some food and water behind (losing the Five Originium Ingot may change the course of the story)

[Leave behind a letter of encouragement (losing even a small idea might change the course of the story)]

[Leaving behind a small knife (Losing an item from the collection may change the course of the story)]

"Although from a combat perspective, choosing option three is not worthwhile." Xia Ling opened her backpack and decisively chose to discard one of her collectibles. "But... under these circumstances, perhaps leaving her a weapon is the best option."

"Hmm..." Kiana nodded and said:

"Food will eventually run out, and encouragement is insignificant in the face of harsh reality, but this little knife might plant a seed of resistance in her."

"Wow, I never expected Kiana to say something like that."

Xia Ling looked at Kiana in surprise. "You haven't been possessed, have you?"

"Well... I was just saying what I felt..."

Kiana scratched her head. "When I see these scenes, I always have a strange sense of immersion..."

"This feeling made me put myself in their shoes and think about what I would do if I were in that situation."

"So, I just feel that in this situation, I would prefer to keep a knife, not for revenge, but... as a last resort."

The sense of immersion... it seems these scenes, to some extent, stirred up the part of Kiana that was connected to Sirin...

From Kiana's perspective, she wouldn't prioritize revenge... which means that Sirin here would most likely make the same choice?

Xia Ling pondered as they navigated through several battle nodes along the way, and the two quickly found the next node related to Sirin.

This place was originally an emergency operation site shrouded in purple aura, but when Xia Ling tried to enter, she found that this node was inaccessible.

After a refresh, the node in front of me turned out to be something unexpected.

[The Fated Path]

After one experiment after another, Sirin's companions left her one by one.

Her best friend, Bella, also succumbed to the Honkai Energy yesterday and gradually lost her body temperature in her arms.

Before parting, Bella handed a hand-drawn map to Sirin.

She knew that Sirin had a small knife, and if it weren't for that, she would never have left the map behind.

However, since she had weapons, she wanted to leave Sirin with a sliver of hope that she could escape this place.

Holding her best friend's gradually cooling body, Sirin's eyes hardened with determination.

[She might not be able to exact revenge on her own; this small knife left behind by an unknown person can at most only allow her to take down one researcher.]

So, she doesn't plan to do that; she wants to... leave.

[Collection Acquired: Last Wish (Opens up different directions for exploration)]

"It seems you were right, Kiana."

Xia Ling glanced at Kiana, who was silent to the side, and said, "Perhaps Sirin thought the same as you. She didn't choose to take someone down with her, but chose to leave this place."

"What if... she succeeds?"

"I don't know. Maybe she will still be the Herrscher of the Void destroyed the Tower of Babylon Tower, or maybe she will choose to go back and take revenge in other ways. Everything is unknown."

"But if it were me, I would support her in doing this, at least I would support Sirin at this point in time."

With that, Xia Ling decisively pressed the option.

A tattered and carelessly written piece of paper appeared in her backpack.

At the same time, a text and a strange symbol appeared on the screen, which was a sign that the Third Ending had been successfully unlocked.

The girl's last shred of hope had vanished with the death of her closest friend; now, she was about to make her final stand.

Even with little hope, she still wished to leave this hell behind, carrying the last wishes of her friends.

If this attempt also fails, the girl may face an abyss of despair...

Chapter Sixty: Sirin: You call this a fair fight?

"Alright, now everything makes sense."

Looking at the information on the screen, Xia Ling analyzed, "The Third Ending is, in a way, another possibility of the official history."

"Neither the history of Schicksal nor the data of Anti-Entropy mentions how Sirin became Herrscher transformation. The very beginning of the Second Honkai Outbreak was the loss of contact with the Babylon Laboratory."

"Then... perhaps in the official history, Sirin did attempt such an escape once? However, without anyone's help, this escape would most likely have failed."

"But putting aside the historical records..." Kiana asked doubtfully, "If they need our help, then who will be our enemy?"

"Given the level of security at the Babylon Laboratory, bringing Sirin out should be quite easy for us, right?"

"Indeed, neither Schicksal nor Anti-Entropy could possibly have noticed this place during this timeframe..."

"But we're not in the real world..."

Xia Ling shook her head. "Don't forget, these things were constructed based on Sirin's memories during her time as an experimental subject, so they may be idealistic in themselves."

"But in Sirin's memories at that time, these seemingly unarmed researchers were actually the embodiment of evil..."

The exploration of the Fourth Floor ended quickly, and on the Fifth Floor, it seemed that because the Third Ending had been triggered, Xia Ling did not encounter any more nodes related to Sirin.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the Ending Two can't be unlocked. Before the boss node, there is a fixed Fated Path node.

However, compared to the anticipated Third Ending, the surprise that Fated Path brought to Xia Ling was no less than that.

[The Fated Path]

Throughout countless struggles, Sirin's voice lingered in your mind, refusing to fade away.